Erik Voorhees’ crypto exchange Shapeshift, once famed for its no-login access, now has user accounts — and “Today, Membership is optional, but it will become mandatory soon.” That is, they are finally going to do proper KYC per the Bank Secrecy Act. The ideological bitcoiners are not happy — but their opinion doesn’t matter if Shapeshift wants to have US links.

The Shapeshift change comes after FinCEN’s director Kenneth A. Blanco’s remarks last month on virtual currencies — that “individuals and entities engaged in the business of accepting and transmitting physical currency or convertible virtual currency from one person to another or to another location are money transmitters subject to the AML/CFT requirements of the BSA and its implementing regulations.”

KodakOne a.k.a. KodakCoin has made its 10 million image target in one swoop, with a new deal with photo agency Lobster! Well, not actually KodakOne or WENN Digital — the deal’s with parent company Ryde GmbH. But it’s near KodakOne.

Bitcoin dipped $400 in fifteen minutes on Tuesday morning, and again on Wednesday evening. Bloomberg attributed this to Goldman Sachs dropping its plans for a crypto desk, and the whole rest of the press copied them — even the Financial Times, who really should know better. Finance journalists need to stop treating crypto as an efficient market that responds to concerns, when it’s a thinly-traded unregulated playground for whales and their tethers, out to wreck the margin longs. A $400 DIP IN FIFTEEN MINUTES IS NOT A RESPONSE TO A MARKET SIGNAL — IT’S A DELIBERATE DUMP. The following price chart, from Coinbase, is not organic trading — except insofar as BS is an organic material:

If you couldn’t make Angela Walch and Edmund Schuster’s talks on Tuesday at LSE — there are audience recordings! Here’s Angela’s talk “Deconstructing ‘Decentralization’: Exploring the Core Claim of Cryptoassets” and Edmund’s talk “The Empty Promise of Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts,” and both their slides. “Objection: But AI!!” “No.”

Breaker jumped the gun slightly with this press release — but yes, I’m discussing writing for them. Editor Ben Schiller seems as good a guy as everyone I know who’s dealt with him says. Just a few contractual terms to resolve. It’s funded by SingularDTV, and yes, they’re quite aware of everything I’ve written about them — but I’ll give them full points for putting their ICO startup ramp to good use.

I should have a short piece on why cryptocurrencies are bad in Kathimerini/Καθημερινή, one of the main Greek daily newspapers, in English and translated to Greek — in the Sunday Debate section, on the question “Major innovation or just a bubble?” Look out for it.

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The content of this site is journalism and personal opinion. Nothing contained on this site is, or should be construed as providing or offering, investment, legal, accounting, tax or other advice. Do not act on any opinion expressed here without consulting a qualified professional. I do not hold a position in any crypto asset or cryptocurrency or blockchain company.